All Forum Posts by: Ben Davis

I'll be there tomorrow! I'm also bringing my dad. Sounds like it'll be very beneficial!

Sounds like good advice! I'll be meeting with a manager in my area next week to discuss possibilities of employment or to seek advice on how to get started in this area. Hopefully I can build a great relationship with him and can provide some great value to him.

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a great property manager to work for to bring great value to and to gain experience and knowledge in the field. So I was wondering, what is the best way to find a great manager in a given market? I can think of a few ways, but I'm just poking around to see what others have to say.

The best way I can think of finding the best manager in town would be through networking. I can see getting out there and talking with the other investors in the area being very helpful because they have lots of connections and experiences to know who is doing a great job managing and who isn't. 

I can think of a couple other ways but I'm just curious what ways you have found to be effective in finding great managers in your area.

Thanks!

@Arlan Potter My dad used to own and manage his own properties and he took everything personal like you are saying and things would wear on him. I don't know if you have read The Book on Managing Rental Properties or not but in there @Brandon Turner tells the story of the typical landlord that manages his properties like a hobby and makes no effort to run it strictly like a business. That's basically how my dad did it and it failed him.

@Shiva Bhaskar That is some good advice! He sounds like he makes a great manager and one that I would strive to be like. It seems like being responsive to the tenants concerns (within reason) goes a long way. I currently rent and our landlady manages the building herself and she has oftentimes been slow to respond or doesn't respond at all to our seemingly minuscule requests and it bothers us. It doesn't seem like it would take much more effort to respond to the tenants as it would to ignore them. One thing I like about Brandon's book is he lays out some good practices for tenant screening that don't seem like they would be difficult to do.

Thanks for your insight and encouragement!

Hi all!

I am curious to hear what your favorite quality or trait was about the best property manager you have worked with. This could be something they have done for you specifically or just something about them that made them great to work with.

It seems I hear a lot about bad managers and what things they have done to cheat the property owners but rarely do I hear the good things about them.

I am thinking about starting a management company down the road and I am gathering information on what things I should consider that may make me a great manager and stand out from the rest. I look forward to hearing your stories or thoughts! Thanks!

@Raheem Mentor I haven't done too much of this yet but with my little experience and with what I've heard, I think you can just go to the county website and look up the address. Most counties will give you the name of the owner but you will most likely have to do other research, such as skip tracing, to get their address if it is absentee owned. I hope this helps!

Ben Davis

Thanks again everyone for the replies, they are much appreciated!

I just watched a video @Brandon Turner put out about scaling to 100 units using the "stack" method. In there he described the benefits of not jumping far ahead to the larger multifamily buildings right away. His points aligned with what you guys said, further making me realize that for me, it probably only makes sense to start smaller with maybe a 4-plex. The mistakes are much smaller and more manageable at the smaller levels. Also, like some mentioned, it is a time to get my systems and processes in place as well as build a solid team that can help me reach my higher goals of more units.

I will have to get in touch with some of you who can be of a benefit to my journey here in REI. Thanks for all the help you give!

Ben Davis

Thanks all, I really appreciate all the replies! 

I have looked at and analyzed several SMF deals in the west end (Waconia, Watertown, Delano, and the likes) and am continuing to do so, hoping to find something that my wife and I with our two kids could live in and still have a little room and somewhat of a yard for the kids to play in. This seems to be the most important thing for my wife at the moment, not cashflow or the other benefits of Owner-Occupied SMF properties. As much as I want to house hack in a four-plex, it would not make sense for us because it does not align with our deepest needs and desires.

I definitely see the benefits of house hacking first, I was just curious what your thoughts were on skipping this step so I don't get caught up in this space and never end up moving on to what really interests me. Good feedback!

Maybe I was just having a moment of illusion, thinking that I could bypass the hard beginnings and get right to the gravy.

Thanks again everyone!

Ben Davis

Hi All,

I'm a new investor in the Minneapolis metro area and I'm really interested in apartment building investing for many reasons. I have heard many times in the podcast and in other areas to start small, whether that be single family houses or small multifamily buildings. I also hear a lot that you should stick with one thing and master it and not switch between investing strategies.

So my question is, what do you think about me finding someone in the area that is doing well investing in apartment buildings and try to help them out some way in order to get an "in" to that type of investing first, rather than starting out small?

I was thinking about something I heard on the BP podcast once about starting out doing bigger deals so that the natural exponential growth of my business would grow off a much larger base. For example, start out with a 24 unit building and grow from there rather than grow up to a 24 unit building and beyond.

My plan would be to, like I said, find someone around here that would be willing to let me help them in their business, in exchange for a little insight on the business. Hopefully I could then partner with them on a deal once I have gained enough "know how" and they trust me enough to let me take over the operations of a deal. All of this would be contributing to a portfolio of experience that I could show potential investors and lenders on my own deals in the future.

I feel like this might be my best shot at learning about this side of investing, on top of all the material I have read and listened to on the topic. Like it is said, you don't ever know what you are doing until you actually do it!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my spiel! Hopefully you have some opinion or insight on the topic, or experience you can share.

Many thanks, Ben Davis

The home is 3000 sq feet and was built in 1978. It has nice features like big windows in front, and it is just down the road from a very nice lake!